THE TECH BILLIONAIRE PULLING THE STRINGS

MASAYOSHI Son, the man pulling the strings over the future of Arm, is one of the world’s most influential – and unpredictable – investors. Son’s SoftBank conglomerate bought the chip designer – then listed in London – for £24bn in 2016. He later tried to offload it to America’s Nvidia for £32bn but the deal was called off a year ago amid intense scrutiny from regulators. That prompted plans to float Arm and a scramble to try to bring it back to London. Son rose to prominence as an investor in some of the world’s best known tech start- ups including ride-hailing firm Uber. His most lucrative bet was on Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba – buying a £17m stake in 2000 that rose in value to £ 168bn. He has also suffered spectacular flops. He ploughed more than £15bn into shared workspace firm, WeWork, reportedly sealing his decision on a multi-billionpound investment after a 12minute tour of the HQ and a car ride with its founder.

But investors baulked at an attempted £39bn flotation in 2019. Today it is valued at under £700m. More recently, SoftBank has lost billions as the value of its tech investments fell.